The Fall Maiden
by SpookyNooodle
Summary: Something happened at the top of Beacon Tower...


We awoke in the crater, smoke curling from her finger tips. She coughed, ash billowing along the ground. She looked up and staggered back. The Wyvern glared at her, but... it was... How was that possible?

She staggered to her feet, her balance unruly with her long hair. Wait... long? She reached behind her back, and... it was red. She didn't have red hair.

* * *

The streets of Vale were deserted. How had she gotten there? Wasn't she at the top of the tower? She looked up and saw it, thousands of feet away. Nothing made any sense, her mind- She was still clutching the ends of her hair, her crimson hair.

Without even realizing what she was looking for, she found it: a pipe had burst, leaking water out onto the street. She ruched over, and bent before the pool. Her eyes were wrong. One green, the other orange. And her _hair_. She'd grown her hair longer, as a rebellion against the rules she had lived under for so long.

But now... it was longer, to her waist, and it turned red past her shoulders. Black hair, red at the ends. She shrieked and snarled. This was not the way things were supposed to be! She held out her hand, a familiar weight settling into it, and slashed at her hair, desperate to cut it off, to separate herself- Her body was cold as she looked at her hand; it wasn't her sword. No, she was holding shrapnel. A piece of one of the robots.

She... what?

She hacked at the hair anyway, cutting off the disgusting red. People would wonder why her hair was shorter. Uh... fire suddenly flared in her finger tips, and she screamed as her hair caught. In her panic, she flailed about, and rolled into the pool, her hair quenching quickly. She hurriedly sat up, looking at the puddle, and her hair was black. Just black. As short as when she'd started, but she could grow it out again.

And now, her eye... her disgusting green eye. Fire flared in her hand again, and she pressed her palm to her face, screaming till her throat was hoarse, and collapsing into the puddle, blacking out.

* * *

"Cinder!" She awoke a tiny eternity later, mocha arms pulling her to her feet, hugging her. "I was so worried, I thought-" her newcomer cut off, seeming to catch herself. "We've been looking everywhere for you, ma'am."

She looked up, to thank the girl, Emerald, when she gasped. "Your eye..." She nodded sadly, pleased at her deception, before freezing at Emerald's next words. "It's green." She recoiled, collapsing into the puddle. "I'm sorry!"

It was Emerald's turn to freeze. It was not her voice. It was wrong. Too high, and mellow, and the words felt too familiar in her mouth, as if she was used to apologizing.

Emerald's eyes were wide. "What?"

She spoke, "I... I'm afraid I don't know." _What?_ She was _afraid_ she didn't know? This was her subordinate! Why was she being so polite!?

She hurriedly covered her eye, terrified of her savior. Emerald cautiously tore some material from her pants, and held it out to her. She took it, wrapping it around her head, covering her deformity.

Another voice called to them, and a boy approached them, his legs charred but largely undamaged steel. "How'd you find her?"

"She was screaming."

"Damn." He looked at her. "What happened to her eye?"

"It's hurt."

"But it's not bleeding."

"It was burned." Emerald was too angry, she needed to pull back, show that there was nothing to hide.

Mercury raised his eyebrows. "Okay...you're talking for her, why?"

"She lost her voice." Still too quick, too angry, he would know there was something to hide. Mercury definitely did believe Emerald, but he shrugged.

"Whatever. Come on, our ride is showing up soon."

* * *

This was hell. Or some kind of nightmare. Her mind kept thrusting things at her, memories of a home, the streets of Mistral, terrible Grimm, a blonde, a figure of ivory skin and unimaginable power.

She sat at a table, plans being made, her mother, but not her mother chastising the irritating man with the moustache. Plans were made, but...

She hadn't seen _him_. Was he alright? Did he miss her? Where was he? Was he with that gi- with Ruby? She signaled to Emerald, and croaked out her request.

"Speak, child."

"She wants to know...what about the girl?" It was the only way to see him. He wouldn't give up, he would be looking to help. He was lovely like that. And so, he would be with Ruby.

"What about her? Seems like this is Cinder's problem, not ours." How _dare_ he!? She _needed_ to see him! She would die if she didn't!

But she needn't have worried. Her not-mother sent the Scorpion-cackler to find Ruby, and he would follow, loyal, dogged, beautiful.

* * *

"Cinder, I'm going to ask you one...last...time: did you kill Ozpin?" She had, hadn't she? We remembered seeing herself fly through the elevator, and Ozpin hadn't followed, so, she must have.

She beckoned her second voice. "No! I want to hear you say it."

She paled. No! She couldn't!

She croaked, as she had learned to do over the past months. "Yes..."

That seemed to satisfy the not-mother. "Reinforce out numbers at Beacon. The relic _is_ there..."

* * *

The scorpion-cackler had failed. She was furious! She wanted to tear him apart, to singe at his inside until he knew the kind of pain she felt every day without _him_.

But now, she would never get to see him!

Unless... he was protecting _her_ , Ruby. What if-?

No, the idea was almost too painful to imagine. It wasn't possible. He loved her. He had kissed her. They were meant for each other.

But the doubt wriggled in her mind, sprouting and blossoming, fertilized by her fearful obsession and paranoia.

What if Ruby had seduced him? Taken him? Made him hers?

She grabbed the scorpion-cackler, and her second voice, made him tell her about Ruby. She stood in the training chamber, the kneeling form of her friend before her.

Tyrian was right. This was _her_ fault! Ruby had taken her eye. Ruby had taken her focus. Ruby had taken _him_.

And she. Would. _**BURN**_.

* * *

 **A/N: A response to a prompt on reddit. Now, this is pretty unlikely, considering, you know, Pyrrha never technically** ** _had_** **the maiden powers, and so her soul didn't really bind to them.**

 **I get the idea of wanting Pyrrha to still be alive, I really do, but... it's just not feasible. Unless we pull some bullshit, resurrection magic out of our asses. Jen and the writers have both said "Pyrrha's story is done." They're not going to have her come back as more than an influence in Jaune's life.**

 **Now, fanfiction on the other hand...**


End file.
